A series of fortunate events

To hear the owners of a Midland business talk, their success is all about a series of unlikely but fortunate circumstances that have brought them a big government contract and personal fulfillment.

When Kathy Fuce-Hobohm and Lisa Hulbert started SPACE Inc. in 1995, they didn't know much about cash flow, balance sheets and assets-to-liability ratios.

"We couldn't make money on purpose," Hulbert said with a laugh. "Sometimes we made money and sometimes we lost money and we had no control of it."

SPACE stands for Solution Planning and Contract Environments. They needed the clumsy name because the word "Space" already was taken.

Since startup, the two have learned to pool their strengths, find savvy mentors and pounce on opportunities. Sales for their Midland-based company, which designs office spaces and sells the furnishings and decor to fit them, is expected to top $16 million this year.

Their business journey started when Fuce-Hobohm was manager of the Gorman's Business Interiors store in Midland and Hulbert worked for her as design salesperson. Out of the blue one day, the Southfield-based company decided to close the Midland business, offering both women jobs that would have meant a move. Neither wanted to pick up and go so, as they finished up their last projects for Gorman, they continued to take orders from clients, all the while making secret plans to open their own business where Gorman left off.

"I don't think I ever missed a day of work after I got fired," Fuce-Hobohm said.

In the early days, they lacked an installation crew, so Fuce-Hobohm's husband and a couple of other men became Prime Time Installation, moving furnishings into clients' offices by night when their day jobs were through.

The two women found their current quarters, on Vantage Point Drive, by accident. The two were driving around and got lost, and saw a man painting a vacant building. That man was Bruce Bartos, who said the building was for lease. Bruce's father, Three Rivers Corp. founder John Bartos, and banker Alan Ott, became mentors for the business. Work on the inside of the building was begun "on a handshake," although the two women didn't have much more than folding tables, sawhorses and doors to create and furnish their new offices, Fuce-Hobohm said.

She and Hulbert pooled whatever cash they could scrounge "and just started working ourselves to death," Fuce-Hobohm said.

"We did it the hard way at the beginning," she continued. At one point, Ott told the two, very nicely, "we didn't know anything. And we didn't."

As the two mined helpful information from their two mentors, they gained business savvy. When Haworth - the furniture manufacturer whose products they sell - told them they needed to open a Flint office or risk losing clients in that area, they opened a sales office in 1996. Then in 2003, SPACE applied to become a federal contractor. It seemed like a hunting license for the feds, because nothing happened at first. Then one day the company received a fax asking if it wanted to bid on all the furniture for the Department of Health and Human Services. Four months later came a conference call informing SPACE that it had been chosen to take part in the bidding process. The bidder list was narrowed from 30 to 10, then to the top two companies - SPACE and one other, both of which received work.

Since then, Hulbert and Fuce-Hobohm have done their share of flying around the country loaded down with flooring samples, laptops and presentation notes. SPACE uses the nationwide network of Haworth dealers and subcontractors to perform much of the design and installation work out of state. SPACE has two more years under its federal contract before it expires.

The two attribute their business success to long hours, hard work and the fact that one or the other owed her business partner too much money in the early days for either one to get out of the business.

Despite the excitement of growth, both Hulbert and Fuce-Hobohm want to focus on working well with what they have before thinking about expanding.

"I'm doing what I should be doing, and I was lucky enough to find it," said Fuce-Hobohm, who once taught English and psychology and coached cheerleading. "That's a blessing. I would wish that on anybody."